


Sting of the Bullet

by ghastlygrimoire



Category: Heart no Kuni no Alice | Alice in the Country of Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Real World Mythology Based, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 14:50:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16042667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghastlygrimoire/pseuds/ghastlygrimoire
Summary: Afraid of what kind of monster her husband could possibly be, Alice decides to disobey his warnings to look at his face. A familiar phantom tries to talk her out of it.





	Sting of the Bullet

**Author's Note:**

> Last autumn, I began working on an AU for Blood/Alice, one modeled on the classic myth of Psyche and Cupid/Eros. I told myself, come NaNoWriMo, I would work on it, and then upload it at one point. 
> 
> Obviously, I did not. I recently found some of my notes and decided to reread the only bit I uploaded to my tumblr. I am pleased that it's still pretty good, even if it is several months old. It should be noted, though, that this was not beta-read.
> 
> As written in the summary, this scene is loosely based off of the infamous scene where Psyche tries to look at her divine husband's face. Note loosely, as it'd be more accurate to say this was the scene leading up to that scene with Alice and Blood.

_'You know that if you do this, Alice, then you will forsake your marriage.'_ The phantom voice of Lorina whispered into her ear.

“I don’t care,” She whispered back. “This marriage was never meant to be mine. It was meant to be yours.” As soon as she says it, her gut twists up into knots. She doesn’t mean it, she knows it. Nonetheless, she lights the lamp with the utmost caution.

 _'It was not me he married, Alice. It was you.'_ There is just a small hint of a smile in her voice and another knot forms, this time in her throat.

“So?” She chokes out. “It does not change the fact that I ran away and leapt off a cliff.” There was no way she should have even still been alive. She leapt off the cliff with the intent to die and ended up married to a mysterious man instead.

It wasn’t fair to Lorina.

Sweet, beautiful Lorina who couldn’t have gotten a husband when she was alive. All of the men in the country flocked to their doors only for her to die alone.

 _'Once you do this, there is no going back.'_ Lorina said. _'Please do not do this, my sister. You deserve this-'_

“I deserve nothing!” She yelled back, not caring if she woke up her husband above. “How could I possibly deserve a warm bed and a lavish home and… and…” Someone’s unconditional love? Especially a stranger’s?

 _'No, Alice, you do.'_ She replied. _'Do not spoil your chances at happiness just because you don’t believe you deserve it.'_

“I’m not spoiling anything for myself.” Alice said, grabbing a knife. “I never should have had this in the first place.” She placed a step on the bottom step of the stairs, and waited a moment. There was no rustling from the chambers above, which prompted her to take another step.

_'Don’t do this.'_

Every step closer brought another wave of apprehension. Both of her hands trembled and began to sweat. Telling herself that she had to see her mysterious husband’s face was no source of comfort.

Knowing that she was disobeying his pleas to not look at his face only made her hands shake even more, threatening to let go of the lantern.

The memories of his gentle touches only made the knots in her stomach tighter.

When she reached to their bedroom door, she draped the lantern on her arm and reached for the knob.

“Please understand that I had to do this.” She whispered before turning the knob.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was called "Sting of the Bullet" since it was meant to be a reference to Cupid/Eros's magic arrows. In one version of the myth, when Cupid/Eros hesitates to fire an arrow at Psyche, he instead nicks himself with his arrow, therefore falling in love with her. In this fic, however, Blood would... shoot himself in the foot with his machine gun, I think. 
> 
> Not the best of my titles, I admit, but its better than simply "Psyche/Eros AU". I didn't work very much on this AU beyond this scene and the very beginning. But theres some untapped potential here! I may revisit this idea in the future.


End file.
